Asian pear celery juice with ginger and mint

This is a tall glass of refreshment, made from in-season Korean pears, celery, fresh ginger, and mint. These particular pears are grown in Korea, but Asian pears are native to China, Japan, and Korea. While they taste like a cross between an apple and a pear, they are not a hybrid.

My CSA provides Asian pears at this time of year, so I was familiar with them. They have a thin, sweet skin and are richly juicy. They are so juicy, in fact, that I prefer juicing them to using them in any other way. So when I received a box of imported Korean pears from Melissa’s Produce, I knew I was going to be juicing them for my post. The ones from Melissa’s are HUGE, nearly a pound apiece due to special pampering as they grow. (See the posts from Jolly Tomato or Shockingly Delicious for more details.)

I thought that the light crisp taste of celery would be a wonderful compliment to the pears, with fresh ginger and mint adding more depth of flavor and spice. You can drink this as is… or you can turn it into the lovely frozen granita below. If you can’t find Asian or Korean pears, you can use any firm pear for this recipe. One advantage to Asian pears is that they don’t turn brown after being juiced or cut. If you use regular pears, plan on drinking the juice right away, or add a touch of lime juice to your granita to prevent browning.

Asian pear-celery-ginger-mint granitaServes 6
Pour the juice into a large shallow dish and put it in the freezer. After about an hour, rake it up with a fork. Rake every 30 minutes until you have fluffy, snow-like crystals. Here’s a demo video on making granita, with a cameo by Buddy Girl:

Finally, I just pulled these Korean pear chips out of the dehydrator and they are madly good. So intensely sweet they almost taste like candied ginger. I cored them, sliced very thinly with a mandoline, then dehydrated for 3 days at 135F.

All of our recipes are gluten-free, sugar-free, and made with plant-based ingredients to help you build a healthy life. We support Meatless Monday. Look for midweek essays and Friday how-to and giveaways (when available).

So glad I finally bought an apple corer! Works great on Asian pears too!

Comments

I love Korean pears…though they can be a bit pricy. I also love the addition of ginger. I find the spicy kick of ginger very refreshing. Right now this a ginger orange apple and carrot juice is my favorite. It’s sweet, spicy, and tangy. It works even if you don’t have all the ingredients.

I don’t have a juicer but I’m imagining this would be no difficult task for the Vitamix! I love the combination of ginger and pear — I never would have thought about the celery but I bet it provides just the right tang! I can also see this making a festive cocktail 😉